CHAP. vni. WORKING BREEDS OF CATTLE. 149 



14 three-year olds ; part of which were taken for cows, and others, ii not good, 

 fattened . 



14 four-year olds ; eight worked. 

 14 five-year olds ; do. 



14 six-year olds ; fattened. 



Thus twenty-four oxen are worked eight at three, eight at four, and 

 eight at five years old ; and a reserve is kept for breeding cows, and 

 accidents. 1 



The details of the Earl of Egremont's system, as followed to a great 

 extent at Petworth, were as follows : 



The calves are dropped from December to the end of February. 

 They are weaned immediately, never being permitted to suck, but the 

 milk being given for a few days, as it comes from the cow. When 

 weaning on skim-milk, they should fall in December, or a month 

 before or after, and should then be kept warm by housing ; thus they 

 will be equally forward with calves dropped late in the spring, and that 

 run with the cow. With the skim-milk some oat-meal is given, but not 

 until the animal is two months old, and then only because the number 

 of calves is too great for the quantity of milk. Water and oatmeal 

 are then mixed with it, to make it go farther. To this heifers with 

 their first calves are exceptions, for they do not become good milkers 

 if their calves are not allowed to suck for the whole season (?). With 

 the second calf they are treated like the rest. In May, the calves are 

 turned to grass. During the first winter, from the beginning of 

 November, they are fed upon rowen, or, as it is also called, after- 

 math. In the following summer they are at grass ; and in the 

 second winter on straw, with a turn on short rough grass. They have 

 been tried on hay alone, but straw and grass do better. During the 

 following and every other summer they are on grass, and are broken-in 

 at Christmas, being then three years old, but are only lightly worked 

 until the spring, when their real labour begins. From this time their 

 winter food is straw, with clover hay from the beginning of January. 

 They are previously kept on straw alone, yet are worked three days 

 in each week. 



The best working breeds are the Hereford, Sussex, Devon, and 

 a mixed breed between Hereford and Sussex. Some give the palm to 

 Sussex cattle for working powers, but this is chiefly in their own 

 county ; beyond that they are little used. 



Mr. Hall Keary states that Devon cattle are extensively used for the 

 plough in Norfolk, and that for working purposes they are unrivalled. 

 " There is almost as much difference," he says, " between a Devon 

 ox and other breeds, as between a light, cleanly, active cart-horse, and 

 a heavy, hairy-legged, sluggish dray-horse." 2 



The general character of the ox is patience and tractability. If 

 young steers sometimes prove refractory and vicious, it is in most 

 instances the result of defective management, or of bad treatment when 

 first broken for the yoke. When an ox is unruly or stubborn, it will 



1 See " Agricultural Survey of Sussex," p. 261. 



2 " Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society," vol. ix. 1st series, p. 436. 



